~100% CPU Spikes in Tera Online

I have posted in different German Boards about my problem but after several days noone was able to help me so i take the time to translate my wall of text for you and hope that you can.

I have a Performanceproblem in TERA Online, which is about me getting CPU Spikes between 80-100%. This happens only in TERA and only if i am actually ingame, so i cannot see what is causing this due to the lack of vision on the Task Manager.

These Spikes are causing alot of Stuttering, Framedrops (I will come to this in a minute) and very, very short Freezes.

My CPU in Tera is normaly around this level: 2x 60-80% 2x 30-40% Usage. So it is normaly not even close to these Spikes.

My Rig:

GTX 570 Phantom @ 900/1800/2000i5-750 @ 3,4 GHZGA-P55M-UD21920*1080 120 HZ Display (Changed - No effect, sadly only thing i can change)8 GB DDR 3 RAM160GB SSD + 2x HDD which are inactive most of the time and do not get started while playing teraWin 7 Ultimate x 64Xonar DX SoundcardG15 Keyboard (with most up 2 date driver)Xai Mouse500 Watt Enermax Power Supply

My System is around a week old. I've formated it cause I got these problems before and hoped it could have erased them which is not the case, sadly.

All Drivers are up2date as far as i know (maybe take a look at the dxdiag at the bottom to doublecheck) this includes GeForce @ Beta, Chipset, Bios, Sound, Logitech Software, etc.

My Graphiccard Driver is @ default settings except of Maximum Powersettings. It does not change a thing if Physx is on CPU/ GPU, still stuttering.

Temperatures are stressed around 75° for my CPU and 70° for my GTX (benched) with rommteperature of around 25° while testing.

My Case and every component of my PC is cleaned perfectly so dust is no problem.I haven't used any so called "Tunning Tools" which could have messed up any windows settings or so.Some things that i already tryed and all failed:

I also had this exact problem in APB but not in the scale of the video but still, pretty similar, so i think of a U3-Problem with my hardware atm the moment.

It is also most noticable if some random character i have never seen before get's into the screen and rendered which was likely similar in APB which in itself leads me to the asumption that I have problems with the streaming of data which the U3-Engine uses. Which is kinda my last resort and last guess after trying so much :/I just wanna play on 120 fps without stuttering :(

Soo... i guess that's all i can provide you with and now it's just waiting and trying everything you can possibly tell me to do.I really appreciate your help cause i am kinda sad that nothing works and while in APB it was "okish" it's absolutly anoying in TERA right now.

Edit: Oh yesh i forgot to mention that it is also happening if nothing is OC'ed at all.

First the 100% CPU spikes are absolutely NORMAL while playing a game and are NOT causing your video issues.Second your Power Supply IS most likely causing the problem here. More exactly, your video card is being starved for current JUST when it needs it the most (while gaming). On the surface 500Watt SHOULD be enough for your video card, though possibly JUST enough, BUT the Quality, Efficiency, and MOST importantly, the Distribution of the power, may not be up to the task. MANY power supplies use multiple 12 Volt rails rather than a single one. Many cheaper power supplies list their Maximum Peak wattage when the Maximum Sustained Wattage is much more important for gaming since you often need to maintain the high current draw for long periods of time so your maximum sustained Wattage is only about 80% of your peak wattage. Then there is the problem of many cheaper power supplies push their amperage up on the 5Volt and 3.3Volt rails which you will never use but inflate the overall wattage numbers. Then the overall efficiency of the power supply if it is low enough can reduce the output below what you think you are getting.List your Amperage on your 12Volt rails.List your Power supplies make and model number so we can look up other information on it.So we can be absolutely sure.

Look for power supplies that have a single 12Volt rail, is a quality name brand, is certified 80% efficient or better, has active PFC, and has about 20% more power than you expect to need.

That PSU gets excellent reviews. I think it's unlikely it's the problem. I didn't see anything in any of your links that looked suspicious, although at 75C, your CPU is getting pretty hot. I do question the sound situation, but if it was the problem, it seems it should apply to everything, not just one or two games. This is what I mean about the sound:

"Deactivated Sound in BIOS"

If you have a PCIe sound card, why would you have the onboard sound activated at all? Have you tried removing the card & it's drivers & using the onboard sound?

When the CPU spikes at 100%, which process in Task Manager is hogging it all, is it the game?

I have tryed Bios only on APB it did not worked there so i guess it won't work here. I would also have to get realtek sound driver installed to get onboard working properly also i have had a x fi titanium in apb which also did not changed anything it is most likely not the soundcards fault.

The Temperatures are in stress tests as you may have overread ingame they are alot lower than this. (prime ~30min 100% on all cores etc.) they are fine ingame.

@ Process in Task manager: I GUESS cause it is not happening in any other game right now. But i do not know for sure cause it happens only ingame ( as written above) and if i tab out its already gone so i cannot look in the task manger.

But as it happens only ingame i am pretty sure it's the game, otherwise it should happen elsewhere (e.g. while running the game in the background).

also @ sound: I have ran dcp latency checker some minutes in the background and there were absolutly 0 spikes (even none to yellow) so i guess it is not a driver issue then.

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